Veteran's hospital promoting outreach program

By the Midland Daily News

Published 3:30 am, Sunday, November 27, 2011

There's a new program a the Aleda E. Lutz Veterans Affairs Medical Center to help veterans who are in legal trouble.

The Veterans Justice Outreach Program is a newly-designed program that collaborates with the VA Homeless Program to identify and work with veterans who are having problems or repeated contact with the legal system. The VJO coordinator will work with law enforcement, probation and parole departments, jails, and the court systems in each county.

The VJO Program identifies veterans involved in the justice system who are not currently accessing, or fully accessing, VA services, including outpatient individual or group counseling, social work or psychological services. It may also help develop a support network that may benefit the veteran with personal growth and avoidance of recidivism.

The key components to the VJO program are:

* Provide training and education relating to judicially-approved options to incarceration or judicial penalties for veterans involved with law enforcement agencies, jails, and courts.

* Provide a check-list to justice involved agencies that help with early identification of veterans eligible for VA services and refer them to the VJO coordinators.

* Assist veterans involved in the justice system with determination of VA eligibility and subsequent referral to appropriate VA services.

* Collaborate with Health Care for Reentry veterans specialist to support early engagement in care for veterans recently discharged from state or federal prisons.

The most recent United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Survey of Inmates in local jails (2002) data indicate that 9.3 percent of people incarcerated in jails are veteranss, mainly due to non-violent crimes.